There are a lot of great British shows. There are a lot of great American shows. There are not -- however -- a lot of great American remakes of great British shows. For every The Office there are five Joel McHales holding a monitor and blowing your mind by the fact that he was in the failed US version of The IT Crowd. OK, not literally five, but you get the idea.

So to celebrate the fact that brilliant new BBC content like The Wrong Mans is now streaming directly to Hulu, cutting out the American remake middle man who is often terrible at his job, let's take a look back at five shows The States miraculously got right and five they cocked up royally when attempting to translate them across the pond.

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The IT Crowd is one of the funniest, geekiest, shows to to ever come out of Britain. It was broad, and had a laugh track, but the characters played by Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry were lovable and adoring. It was basically the show that The Big Bang Theory wishes it could be, and yet, when they brought it to America with Richard Ayoade (reprising his role), Joel McHale, and Jessica St. Clair, I suspect it became more like the show the The Big Bang Theory actually is. We'll never really know, however, because NBC never even picked up the pilot, claiming that there was simply "no spark."

Shut up! Yes, it's a silly reality show, and yes, it's on TLC. But back in the day, Trading Spaces was one of the original (if not, the original) home makeover shows in America. In its heyday, it was a simple, no-frills reality show where two families with small budgets of like $1,000 swapped a room in there respective homes and redecorated. The home improvement tips or what have you were OK, but the true joy in Trading Spaces was the reveal, especially when one couple opened their blindfolded eyes to discover that the other couple had basically turned their bedrooms into cheap coke den. It was the perfect hangover show, and Paige Davis, who hosted for the first four years, and again in 2008, was bubbly, effervescent perfection.

Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) directed the pilot -- which actually featured Hugh Jackman (who produced the series) and Melanie Grifith -- and seemed poised for instant success. However, despite an excellent time slot (after CSI during its heyday), the CBS series bombed. The New York Times called it, perhaps, "the worst television series in the history of television." The British version, Blackpool, starring David Tennant and David Morrissey, was a big hit and was even nominated for Best Drama at the BAFTAs. The American version? Cancelled after two episodes.

Having seen the first four seasons of the brilliant British series, I was skeptical about the American remake, and the first few episodes -- which too closely tracked the British series -- suggested by skepticism was well-founded. However, midway through the first season, the American version began to break away from the British series and eventually found its own voice, becoming one of the most under appreciated comedy-dramas on television thanks to great writing and a terrific cast that includes William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum. Until Masters of Sex came along, Shameless was the most consistently good program on Showtime.

The British version, starring (among others) Anthony Head, was a filthy, dark black comedy that used the word "c*nt" three times and "f**k" twenty-two times and raised the ire of media watchdogs over in the UK. The American version was a sanitized remake starring Hank Azaria (and again, Anthony Head) that forgot to bring the "black" part of the comedy. It was cancelled after four episodes.

Though the original British series was only 4 episodes, Netflix decided to adapt House of Cards as its first major original program after the British series found immense success on the streaming content service. The gamble paid off, as the $100 million first season produced by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright successfully introduced binge-watching to first run episodes. Gripping, suspenseful, beautifully crafted, brilliantly acted, and frequently very funny, House of Cards is addictive and entertaining.

Not technically a remake, so much as an American continuation of a Doctor Who spin-off, the British original started out slow (like a raunchier Fringe) but built toward a third series, Torchwood: Children of Earth, that was one of the most amazing and devastating bits of sci-fi to ever air on television. Torchwood: Miracle Day, the American continuation of the series (co-produced by the BBC), however, was appalling, bringing in a barking Mekhi Phifer, moving most of the action to the States, and minimizing the best thing about Torchwood (Captain Jack). The fourth series spun its wheels through too many filler episodes and careened toward a dumb cliffhanger that will likely never, ever be resolved.

Not technically a remake, Armando Iannucci basically transplanted the same premise and the brand of comedy from a British government minister's office in his In the Thick Of it to the Vice President's office in America. The results are equally terrific. The jokes are rapid-fire and hilarious; the satire is sharp; and the acting is top notch (Julia Louis Dreyfus has won two Emmys), and Veep is probably the smartest comedy on television right now.

The grandaddy of all failed British remakes, NBC took Steven Moffat's provocative and hilarious Coupling, which was something akin to a British version of Friends, and tried to turn it into an American version of Friends, when America already had a Friends on the air. The network's interference, in addition to terrible miscasting, led to Coupling's cancellation after four episodes. Even NBC President, Jeff Zucker, who brought Coupling over to the network, said of Coupling that "it just sucked."

The pilot -- basically a scene-for-scene remake of the original British series -- was a bust, and the six-episode first season was mediocre, at best. But once the American The Office broke free from the British original, the series ran off three of the best sitcoms seasons in the 21st century. The post-Carell, post Jim-and-Pam marriage years were mediocre, at best (save for the final six episodes), but during its heyday, very little came close to The Office's ability to mine office-life for often perfect (and perfectly awkward) observational comedy.

I assume one of the problems with the American IT crowd is the fact that Joel McHale and Chris O’Dowd are absolutely nothing alike. I mean, just look at how awkward and uncomfortable McHale looks in the t-shirt in that picture as opposed to how believable and effortless O’Dowd looks as a slacker. Weird casting decision.

Well, the pilot was made in 2007, and earlier in his career, he was kinda grungy – [www.youtube.com] – so I don’t think it’s that odd of a casting. I like McHale on Community and the Soup, but even with Ayoade being a part of the US version, the pilot was unwatchable.

I think my main problem was that St. Clair just didn’t match up to Parkinson. Even though they were reading the same lines, St. Clair just didn’t evoke as much sympathy from me.

Saw the pilot, and the difference between O’Dowd and McHale is, well, the difference. Roy was hostile and arrogant, but he was also this lumpy-looking reject. The joke was on HIM. McHale, with his chiseled awesomeness, just came off as a dick. The weird thing was that it WAS picked up, then they had a regime change at NBC, and the new guy flushed it.

happens all the time, theres like 5 versions of That 70s show, and one of them is in the UK, well i think it went the way of most of these. Cheers had a UK version, Taxi had one, if it can make them money with little work, why the hell not?

I hate to be THAT GUY, but Paige Davis was not the host of Trading Spaces for the first 4 years, Alex McLeod was the host for the first year (before leaving to host Joe Millionaire!), THEN Paige Davis hosted the next 4 years…

For more Berry, check out Snuff Box [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqDbb7-dn9A]

For more Iannucci political humor, The Day Today is excellent, though dated (I think it came out in 1994). It’s pseudo sequel Brass Eye is pretty great too, though much darker (as that one was all Chris Morris).

Not willing to dig very far back, are we, if we’re calling Coupling the “grandaddy of all failed British remakes”? Why, that was only 10 years ago. If we go back another 20 we could site “Reggie”, with Richard Mulligan trying to sub for Leonard Rossiter (and also focusing on the wrong aspects of the show). I’m sure there are plenty more older ones as well.

/Acknowledges that you’re probably using “grandaddy” in the “biggest” sense, not “oldest”
//Hopes he didn’t miss a “of the last 10 years” or “recent” or other qualifier
///Mainly wanted to bring up “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin”
////Maybe shouldn’t be using Fark-style slashies

It is not completely accurate to say that “House of Cards” was “only four episodes.” The first series of four episodes was followed by “To Play the King” and “The Final Cut,” and the entire group of miniseries is known as the “House of Cards” trilogy. The ending of the last episode left no room for further sequels.

Thank you! The American “House of Cards” is a bloated mess in contrast to the incomparable original, whose entire run was shorter than the first season of the American adaptation of the BBC’s first series.

And sorry, but Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are no match for Sir Ian Richardson and Diane Fletcher.

Honestly, with a few exceptions (the one about the paroled sex offender originally played by Burt Young), I didn’t recognize the US stories from the UK version. And the British Lennie Briscoe/Fontana mash-up is just fabulous.

I do giggle every time someone says “copper.” “You killed a copper! A COPPER!”

That one, thankfully, was scrapped shortly after the initial planning stage. There was backlash from both fans and folk from the original, reasoning that the show only worked outside of America, mainly due to all it’s characters parodying American life in their native England.

I heard they were planning to remake Spy (another British show that had an exclusive run on Hulu) with Rob Corddry in the Darren Boyd role. I was cautiously optimistic because I love me some Rob Corddry but I haven’t heard any recent news on if it’s still happening. I frequently re-watch the original because it’s a pretty fun watch.

I PRAY Americans never try to remake Misfits (It hasn’t happened already I just don’t know it, right? RIGHT?!). It was bad enough trying to watch the original after Robert Sheehan left. If anyone is still watching the current series, I’d love to know if it’s still worth watching.

One thing I will say about the UK and the US version of TV shows is that the UK versions are very prone to end on a high. They’ll cut a show to 3 or 4 seasons and end it, leaving the audience wanting more. America is terrible for forcing out extra seasons of TV shows that have been steadily on the decline.

British TV excels at short sharp self-contained 4-6 episode miniseries rather than sustaining high quality over extended network friendly multiple seasons, so there’s plenty of quality that is of little use when it comes to viable remakes. The two best British TV shows in recent years – The Shadow Line and Utopia – are so idiosyncratic it would be a folly to remake them.

could you name these US shows that sustain high quality over multiple seasons? no, you can’t because they dont exist. these 24 episode season shows have 5-6 quality episodes or 5-6 episodes worth of quality and that is no different than just having 5-6 quality episodes and be done with it. 24 episodes merely stretches out the good stuff for nothing more than commercial reasons. the extra writers these shows employ exist only to create more material, not better material.

Yikes, I can’t even imagine how a network remake of Utopia would work, you’d have to scale down the voilence for one thing, but mostly I just can’t picture any network that would go with that eccentric of a look and sound. Also you’d have to tie the story in knots to get Neil Maskell’s version of Arby in there, and there’s no substitute for that.

you are confusing laugh track with canned laughter. laugh track merely means the tv audience can here the live audience. canned laughter means they add artificial laughter. although the big bang theory is really pushing it with these definitions

First two series of the British version: lots of fun, very interesting. Third series: changed all the rules about ghosts, got old fast. The US remake is largely forgettable, not good, not bad, just…. there.

Got right: Being Human, although you can watch both shows and enjoy the hell out of both and not even feel like it’s two versions of the same show. I personally feel the U.S. version nailed the finale.